Correspondence



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one dose of the stuff. In May, the day before the Avicultural party here, my

Crowned Starling, which has just hatched off young, was found to be coughing

very badly. The bird was caught up and given five drops of Aniodol, and

put back into the aviary. The cough disappeared at once, and she successfully

reared her young. In June, a Superb Starling was treated with it, and again at

the end of June a White-winged Mynah. Within an hour no signs of gapes

were seen. It is a very simple remedy ; only five drops of the stuff is poured

into the bird’s beak with a dropper, and the bird is held in the hand for

a couple of minutes to make certain that the drops are swallowed. After

the wonderful success I have had with this stuff, I would recommend all

bird lovers to keep a bottle of this most useful cure handy.


“ Aniodol interne ” can be bought from Laboratoires de Y aniodol, 3 Rue

des Alouettes, Nanterre, Paris, France.


Alfred Ezra.



TORPIDITY IN THE TKOCHILIIYE


At 10.45 p.m. on 21st June the two Humming Birds, Eupetomena

macroura and Chrysolampis moschitus, were torpid at a temperature of

66° F. Now I have always suspected that this state is not induced primarily

or necessarily by a low atmospheric temperature. I therefore deliberately

exposed the birds to more cool air (by opening an additional window), but

left the electric light burning, after moving the birds gently with a stick so

that they hung upside-down, like bats, on their respective perches. Within

ten minutes the eyes of each were open, and in a very few minutes more one

after the other flew to have a feed.


I think this proves that the torpid state is not necessarily brought on by

cold, and that it is probably a natural state of rest—a kind of very deep

sleep—provided by Nature in order that the creature’s energy may be

generated for the astonishingly active life it is to lead on the following day.

We are thus forced to speculate on the possibility of hibernation in some

members of the family, which—should it be indulged in by them—would be

no more extraordinary than in the case of bats. In these latter, spread from

the Tropics to more rigorous climes, only those which are exposed to periods

of scarcity of food pass any time in a torpid state. Could not the same be

the case with the Trochilus colubris, Selasphorus rufus, Eustephanes

gallentus, and others, which at certain seasons must sometimes be caught

without food in prematurely severe weather before they can have had time

to shift their quarters ?


When I say that the birds were torpid, I mean that they showed to all

appearance no spark of life ; they could be moved about and laid out on a table

like as many dried skins. But what is, I think, important is that they should

not only remain upright on their perches but should be so smooth in feather

that they appear to have been struck dead suddenly while asleep without

having had time to alter their positions : all evidence to show that it is

a natural condition. I have no doubt that it is due to this habit that the

Trochilidse are supposed to need a very high temperature in order to be main¬

tained in health. For my part I have but little hesitation in submitting them

to the ordinary atmospheric conditions provided for most foreign birds.



